


The Elephant in the Room

by FrenchRoast



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22590097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrenchRoast/pseuds/FrenchRoast
Summary: A little scene between Rachel and Tobias, set sometime around #53/when they're in the Hork-Bajir Valley.
Relationships: Rachel (Animorphs)/Tobias (Animorphs)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	The Elephant in the Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Emmeebee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmeebee/gifts).



We all split up and went our separate ways after the meeting. In the free Hork-Bajir valley, the parents had all mostly retreated to their make-shift cabins. Marco had gone looking for Erek, while Ax and Cassie and Tobias had their own errands. I had my errands, too.

I took a walk out into the woods, getting distance between myself and our camp. Once I had some distance, I started trying out different morphs. It had been ages since I’d done some of them. Skunk, for instance—it was almost laughable how long ago we’d all acquired that morph. We’d saved most of a litter of skunk babies…we were practically babies then, too. Parrot, from not too long after that, for a stunt in that mall restaurant. Wolf. Fluffer McKitty.

I didn’t go through them all. I wasn’t about to ever morph an ant or a mole again unless I had to—and it was not looking likely that I would.

But I did morph my African elephant. My first, my original battle morph. As I grew (ears first this time, then my legs, then skin and tusks and trunk until I was fully elephant), I remembered the first time I’d morphed it. And how I’d used it at that circus to help the other elephants. The elephant’s size made it less practical than my grizzly morph most of the time, but being an elephant was still so satisfying. The power. The sheer bulk, combined with the daintiness of my trunk. I picked up an acorn that had fallen on the ground in front of me and delicately placed it on a tree branch overhead for some lucky squirrel to find. I walked around in elephant morph for awhile, just stomping and picking up things as I saw fit. Maybe an hour passed that way when I saw a familiar shadow in the sky.

<Rachel? Is there some reason you’re an elephant right now?> Tobias asked. He sailed down, his feathers catching the air as he drifted towards me.

<It’s just been awhile,> I replied. <I thought I ought to take the morph out for a spin. But I should probably demorph soon. Care for a flying buddy?>

<Sure. James and his people will be along as soon as their nurses finish their rounds, so we’ve got some time.>

I demorphed, but sat down on the forest floor for a few minutes to catch my breath before immediately morphing my bald eagle. “Do you think Marco is going to need help finding the Chee?”

<I think Ax and Cassie have the harder job.>

“I’ve thought about morphing Fluffer when the two of them show up with Chapman. Just for old times’ sake,” I said with a laugh.

<That would be mean. And hilarious.>

“I wonder how old Fluffer is doing these days.”

<I’m sure he’s fine. He was hell to deal with just a couple years ago, and I doubt that’s changed. Any cat who thinks he can take on a hawk is plenty able to take care of himself.>

“Good point.” I stood up, and started to morph. But before my skin had begun to take on the usual feather pattern, I stopped. Reversed the morph. “Tobias, I want to go flying, but first can we…” I trailed off. I didn’t like asking him to morph to human. But I needed him.

Tobias nodded (even now, after years, it was still weird to see a hawk use human gestures like nods), and fluttered to the ground. He started his morph, and it was unpredictably comedic—his feathers disappeared first, and for a few seconds, he looked a lot like a plucked chicken waiting to be roasted. <Thank god Marco isn’t seeing this,> he said as I tried (unsuccessfully) to hold back my laughter. The morph continued more or less normally from there, but I was still laughing as he finished.

“You would never hear the end of it if that had happened around the others.”

Tobias cocked his head, an almost hawk-like movement. “Good thing you’re the only witness, and no one need ever hear about it.”

“They might not _need_ to hear about it…”

Tobias sighed. “What do I need to do to keep this on the down-low?”

“Oh, I can think of a few things,” I said, and leaned in to kiss him. He kissed back, softly. Deeply. After a minute, he pulled back.

“I’ve only got two hours, you know.” He grinned. I could fall into that grin for days on days on weeks on years, if only we had the time for it.

But we had two hours.

Two.

I forced a smile back at him. “Then we’d better get started if you want to do things right.”


End file.
